Structure for strengthening of building column structures

ABSTRACT

An earthquake-resistant strengthening structure for building column structures, includes: a plurality of strengthening plates which are made of fiber sheet, are coupled by a concavo-convex structure in a vertical direction and are coupled by a sliding coupler in a horizontal direction; and mortar which strengthens a coupling between the strengthening plates and adheres the strengthening plates to an earthquake-resistant object. The earthquake-resistant strengthening structure is light, can be easily coupled or assembled, and provides a large binding force and tensile force by structural engagement between pieces of the strengthening plates and fusion of bonding materials. In addition, since the strengthening plates are made of glass fiber or carbon fiber, it is possible to provide an optimal earthquake-resistant strengthening structure having high durability, flexibility and strength with no corrosion.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an earthquake-resistant structure for strengthening building structures, and more particularly, to an optimal earthquake-resistant structure for strengthening building column structures, which is capable of providing high durability, flexibility and strength and no corrosion.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, many countries including Japan, India, Turkey, Iran and so on have often suffering from earthquakes which cause disasters including casualties and destruction of infrastructures such as bridges. In addition, it has turned out that other countries including Korea are not safe against earthquakes. Therefore, there is a current keen need of a seismic design for structures such as bridges according to strict design standards.

Conventional bridges have been designed according to an elastic design method based mainly on allowable stress, without a separate earthquake-resistant design standard. However, in such an elastic design method, since a seismic force, which is one of design variables, is set to be too small, response displacement obtained based on this set seismic force may be remarkably underestimated compared to actual displacement and moment produced by a combination of gravity and bearing power may be also underestimated. In addition, since stiffness of structures is evaluated based on the entire effective sectional stiffness rather than stiffness measured after the structures are cracked, corresponding response displacement is underestimated.

With the above problems in the conventional bridges, it is almost impossible to tear down, redesign and reconstruct the bridges according to a strict earthquake-resistant design standard due to budgetary limitations although the bridges are in danger of collapse in the event of earthquakes. Accordingly, the way being currently used is to provide the conventional bridges with a strengthening structure to prevent the bridges from being collapsed in the event of earthquakes.

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of earthquake-resistant strengthening equipment 200 of a conventional bridge lower structure. As shown in FIG. 1, the earthquake-resistant strengthening equipment 200 of the conventional bridge lower structure includes tendon fixing members 210 and 220 fixed to an upper part and a lower part of a pier of the bridge lower structure, respectively, one or more column strengthening clamp members 230 fixed to a column of the pier, a plurality of tendons 240 which is arranged in the outer side of the column with a predetermined interval, with their upper and lower ends fixed to the upper and lower tendon fixing members 210 and 220, respectively, and are fixed to the column strengthening clamp members 230 by means of clamp rings 250, and a concrete strengthening layer 260 stacked on the outer side of the column of the pier.

However, the above-structured earthquake-resistant strengthening equipment 200 of the conventional bridge lower structure provides a vertical binding force due to pre-stress without consideration of a horizontal binding force, particularly not considering earthquake-resistant strengthening of a fragile central area of the periphery of the bridge lower structure at all and has a problem of difficulty in stacking of the concrete strengthening layer 260 and construction due to manufacture of a separate work bench. In addition, this above-structured earthquake-resistant strengthening equipment also has other problems of low durability due to external environments such as corrosion, and overweight of the entire earthquake-resistant structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To overcome the above problems, it is an object of the invention to provide an optimal earthquake-resistant structure for strengthening building column structures, which is light and which is capable of providing high combinability or assembleability, high durability, flexibility and strength and no corrosion.

To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an earthquake-resistant strengthening structure for building column structures, including: a plurality of strengthening plates which are made of fiber sheet, are coupled by a concavo-convex structure in a vertical direction and are coupled by a sliding coupler in a horizontal direction; and mortar which strengthens a coupling between the strengthening plates and adheres the strengthening plates to an earthquake-resistant object.

Preferably, the fiber sheet is a multi-layered carbon fiber or glass fiber sheet and the fiber sheet includes at least one porous fiber sheet between upper and lower sheet layers.

Preferably, the fiber sheet includes at least one porous aluminum or stainless steel layer between upper and lower sheet layers and the sliding coupler is configured to be vertically slid and horizontally coupled.

Preferably, a coupling structure of the sliding coupler includes projections whose end portions are widened and grooves whose end portions are narrowed, the projections being vertically slidably coupled to the grooves.

According to the present invention, the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure is light, can be easily coupled or assembled, and provides a large binding force and tensile force by structural engagement between pieces of the strengthening plates and fusion of bonding materials. In addition, since the strengthening plates are made of glass fiber or carbon fiber, it is possible to provide an optimal earthquake-resistant strengthening structure having high durability, flexibility and strength with no corrosion.

In addition, since the strengthening plates consisting of a plurality of pieces, construction thereof is very simple. Further, since the pieces of the strengthening plates can be freely changed in their size and shape, the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure can be applied to a variety of building column structures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of earthquake-resistant strengthening equipment of a conventional bridge lower structure.

FIG. 2 is a separated perspective view of a building column earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a state where strengthening plates are combined according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a state where the building column earthquake-resistant strengthening structure is attached and clamped to a building column according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a configuration of a strengthening plate used in an earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a configuration of a strengthening plate used in an earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The above and other objects, advantages, features and methods will be better understood when reading the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. However, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but may be embodied in other various forms. The disclosed embodiments are provided to describe the present invention in detail so that those skilled in the art can practice the technical ideas of the present invention.

In the drawings, elements of the embodiments are not shown in a limited sense but may be exaggerated for clarity. Throughout the drawings, same reference numerals denote same or similar elements.

In the specification, as used herein, the term “and/or” is meant to include at least one of elements arranged before and after. In addition, a singular form “a” or “an” is meant to include a plural form unless stated specifically otherwise. In addition, as used herein, the term “comprise(s)” or “comprising” is meant to include or add one or more of elements, steps, operations, devices and apparatuses other than those mentioned in the specification.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a separated perspective view of a building column earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to an embodiment of the present invention and FIG. 3 is a view showing a state where strengthening plates are combined according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of strengthening plates 10 which are made of material of fiber sheet, are combined by means of concavo-convex structures 13 a, 13 b, 14 a and 14 b in a vertical direction and are combined by means of sliding couplers 15 a and 15 b in a horizontal direction; and mortar which strengthens the combination of the strengthening plates and adheres the strengthening plates to a structure to be protected against earthquakes.

The above-configured earthquake-resistant strengthening structure is an assembly structure which surrounds the periphery of a building column structure as an earthquake-resistant object, with pieces of each strengthening plates 10 coupled together by a coupling structure, and is adhered to an outer wall of the building column structure by means of mortar.

As described earlier, most of conventional earthquake-resistant strengthening structures are structures which adhere steel plates to the outer wall of a building or support the outer wall with iron bars fixed to the outer wall by means of bolts. However, these conventional earthquake-resistant strengthening structures have problems of overweight, corrosiveness by oxidization of the steel plates, and very hard installation.

In contrast, in the present invention, since the strengthening plates 10 are made of fiber sheet and are combined together in both of the vertical and horizontal direction and mortar is adhered to the earthquake-resistant object, it is possible to prevent oxidization, considerably reduce the total weight of the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure, increase a binding force between the strengthening plates 10 by means of the mortar permeating into combining portions 13, 14 and 15 of the strengthening plates 10, and increase a binding force between the strengthening plates 10 and the earthquake-resistant object, which results in improved earthquake-resistance and durability of the earthquake-resistant object.

In the present invention, the strengthening plates 10 are preferably made of glass fiber sheet or carbon fiber sheet. Glass fiber is mineral fiber including fibrous melt glass and may be classified into long fiber and short fiber depending on its usage. The glass fiber has the following properties: {circle around (1)} high heat-resistance and flame-resistance, {circle around (2)} no absorptiveness and little hygroscopicity, {circle around (3)} anti-corrosiveness due to chemical durability, {circle around (4)} high strength, particularly high tensile strength, {circle around (5)} low elongation and high electrical insulation, adiabaticity and soundproofing. When the strengthening plates 10 made of the glass fiber having the above-mentioned properties are applied to the present invention, it is possible to achieve an optimal earthquake-resistant strengthening structure having high durability, anti-corrosiveness, lightness and high tensile strength.

Carbon fiber is a fiber made by heating and carbonizing an organic fiber in inert gas and has strength of 10 to 20 g/d and specific gravity of 1.5 to 2.1. In addition, the carbon fiber has high heat-resistance, impact-resistance, chemicals-resistance and vermin-resistance. This is lighter than metal (for example, aluminum) and has elasticity and strength superior to metal (for example, iron) since molecules of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and so on are escaped from the carbon fiber in a heating process. Such merits can be used to provide an optimal strengthening plate as an earthquake-resistant strengthening body in the present invention.

The above-mentioned coupling structure will be now described in more detail. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the coupling structure is a structure in which the strengthening plates 10 are coupled together to surround the outer wall of the earthquake-resistant object (for example, the building column structure), with the strengthening plates 10 coupled together in both of the vertical and horizontal directions.

The horizontally-coupled structure is a sliding structure 15 a and 15 b in which projections are vertically and slidably coupled to grooves. In this case, end portions of the projections are formed to be wide while end portions of the grooves are formed to be narrow. Accordingly, when the projections are coupled to the grooves, the projections are locked into the grooves so that the projections cannot be horizontally escaped out of the grooves.

The vertically-coupled structure is a structure in which the concavo-convex structures 13 a, 13 b, 14 a and 14 b formed in the upper and lower strengthening plates 10 are coupled together in engagement. Since the vertically-coupled structure is coupled vertical to the building column so that a binding force by gravity can be increased itself, there is no serious problem even if the vertically-coupled structure has a binding force smaller than that of the horizontally-coupled structure.

The coupled strengthening plates 10 are adhered to the earthquake-resistant object by mortar which permeates into combining portions of the strengthening plates and increases a binding force between the strengthening plates 10 and the earthquake-resistant object.

The mortar is produced by kneading cement and sand with water and may be divided into lime mortar, asphalt mortar, resin mortar, vermiculite mortar, perlite mortar and so on depending on the type of binder. The mortar is widely used over the whole of constructions including architectures due to its high strength, fire-resistance, water-resistance, durability and so on and simple workability. That is, the mortar has an excellent property as an inorganic binder.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a state where the building column earthquake-resistant strengthening structure is attached and clamped to a building column according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure of this invention is a structure having a strengthening body attached and coupled to an outer wall or periphery of a column, which is assembled with a horizontal sliding coupling and a vertical concavo-convex coupling and can strengthen a binding force between the strengthening plates 10 and the building column by means of mortar.

As described above, the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure of this invention is light, can be easily coupled or assembled, and provides a large binding force and tensile force by structural engagement between pieces of the strengthening plates and fusion of bonding materials. In addition, since the strengthening plates are made of glass fiber or carbon fiber, it is possible to provide an optimal earthquake-resistant strengthening structure having high durability, flexibility and strength with no corrosion.

In addition, since the strengthening plates consisting of a plurality of pieces, construction thereof is very simple. Further, since the pieces of the strengthening plates can be freely changed in their size and shape, the earthquake-resistant strengthening structure can be applied to a variety of building column structures.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a configuration of a strengthening plate used in an earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the strengthening plate of this embodiment is made of a multi-layered glass fiber or carbon fiber sheet and forms a structure including at least one porous glass fiber or carbon fiber sheet between upper and lower sheet layers.

With use of the porous glass fiber or carbon fiber sheet between the upper and lower sheet layers, this structure provides high ability to absorb an external impact such as an earthquake, high flexibility, high binding force between fiber sheets, and high strength. In addition, the porous sheet layers can prevent the binding force from being weakened due to external environments such as humidity and temperature.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a configuration of a strengthening plate used in an earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to still another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the strengthening plate of this embodiment is made of a multi-layered glass fiber or carbon fiber sheet and forms a structure including at least one porous aluminum or stainless steel sheet between upper and lower sheet layers. With use of the porous aluminum or stainless steel sheet between upper and lower sheet layers, this structure can provide even higher strength of the strengthening plate.

Although a few exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that adaptations and changes may be made in these exemplary embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents. 

1. An earthquake-resistant strengthening structure for building column structures, comprising: a plurality of strengthening plates which are made of fiber sheet, are coupled by a concavo-convex structure in a vertical direction and are coupled by a sliding coupler in a horizontal direction; and mortar which strengthens a coupling between the strengthening plates and adheres the strengthening plates to an earthquake-resistant object.
 2. The earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to claim 1, wherein the fiber sheet is a multi-layered carbon fiber or glass fiber sheet.
 3. The earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to claim 2, wherein the fiber sheet includes at least one porous fiber sheet between upper and lower sheet layers.
 4. The earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to claim 2, wherein the fiber sheet includes at least one porous aluminum or stainless steel layer between upper and lower sheet layers.
 5. The earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to claim 1, wherein the sliding coupler is configured to be vertically slid and horizontally coupled.
 6. The earthquake-resistant strengthening structure according to claim 5, wherein a coupling structure of the sliding coupler includes projections whose end portions are widened and grooves whose end portions are narrowed, the projections being vertically slidably coupled to the grooves. 